"Star Wars" Names for Ordinary Things Quiz

Answer: Basic

In "Star Wars", most people spoke Galactic Basic Standard, which started as a trade language. While Basic matches English (or whatever Earth-language "Star Wars" was being presented in), the script was not the Latin script. Instead, the fictional Aurebesh alphabet was used, which was just a replacement of Latin characters. If you can memorize which letters are which in Aurebesh, you can read "Star Wars" writing as English.

Latin letters were still used in "Star Wars" (such as in "R2-D2" or "X-wing"), as were Greek letters (such as "Alpha Squadron" or "Lambda class shuttle"). Latin letters were called the "High Galactic" alphabet, and Greek letters were "Tionese".

Answer: Blasters

Blasters in "Star Wars" were not lasers (although laser cannons also existed). Blasters fired bursts of plasma in "bolts". Some rare weapons fired physical projectiles; these were called "slug-throwers".

Answer: Vibroblades

Every kind of sharp edge in "Star Wars" was a vibro-something. The most common were vibroblades used by soldiers and agents when they did not want to use loud flashy blasters. But the Gamorrean guards in Jabba's Palace in "Return of the Jedi" wielded vibroaxes, and surgeons would cut into beings with vibroscalpels.

The idea with vibroblades was that their high-frequency, low amplitude vibrations made it easier to cut things. Of course, this meant that even simple knives needed batteries. When enabled, a quiet hum could be heard, so when agents wanted to be especially stealthy, they would sometimes leave their vibroblades switched off.

Answer: Speeders

Speeders were common across the galaxy. Luke Skywalker had a personal speeder on Tatooine, and the skies of Coruscant were constantly filled with speeder traffic. Wheeled and tracked vehicles (and walkers) also existed in "Star Wars", but usually just to look cool.

Answer: Swoops

Speederbikes existed in "Star Wars" (famously seen on Endor in "The Return of the Jedi"), but there was another class of bike called the Swoop. Swoops were sometimes called "an engine with a seat." They were more powerful than speederbikes and didn't have any pesky safety features. Swoops were often used by biker gangs.

Answer: Dejarik

Dejarik was seen in "A New Hope" where R2-D2 played against Chewbacca. Chewie got upset when he started losing, and Han Solo mentioned it was unwise to upset a Wookiee.

Instead of a square board, Dejarik was played on a circular board. An actual physical board game was produced on Earth in 2014 when Disney acquired the "Star Wars" license.

Answer: Sabacc

A lot of the drama in Sabacc scenes is similar to poker scenes in Earth media. And just like poker, Sabacc has many regional variants. Unlike poker, Sabacc has digital cards that can change value if not "locked in," and in some tournaments, the rule set could swap between any of these variants at random, turning a good hand into a terrible one, or vice-versa. Han Solo famously won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian in a Sabacc game.

Sabacc was the "Star Wars" version of poker, but other casino games existed too, such as Pazaak, the "Star Wars" version of blackjack.

Like Dejarik, physical versions of Sabacc have been produced (with only one set of rules, and no cards that change values as you hold them).

Answer: Tapcaf

A tapcaf (or "tapcafe") was a place where people could buy caf (or "caffa" or "coffeine" or just "coffee", depending on who the author was and how diligent the editors were). Caf came from caf dispensers or distillers, and was often supplemented with creams and/or sweeteners.

Answer: Ferrocrete

"Ferrum" is Latin for iron, with Latin-derived languages having similar words. This is why the elemental symbol for iron is Fe. "Ferrocrete" could be translated as "steel-reinforced concrete," which is most concrete used on Earth. Ferrocrete is similar to regular reinforced concrete, with centuries more material science to make it better.

And while concrete was replaced with ferrocrete, steel (beams, plates, etc.) was replaced with durasteel (which was like steel, but, you know, more durable).

Answer: Transparisteel

It's "transparent steel," and is used wherever someone on Earth might use glass or clear plastic. Windows in buildings, starfighter cockpit canopies, and the eyes of Darth Vader's mask were all made of transparisteel.

Answer: Turbolift

Unlike elevators, turbolifts did not use cables. Instead they had repulsorlifts (hover engines) to move them along their tubes. It was not uncommon for turbolift tubes to be a sealed vacuum to allow for faster travel of the cars.

Answer: Refresher

The full name was refresher station, which was shortened to refresher, and then to 'fresher. Refresher stations also often had sonic showers or sanisteams. In the 1999 novel "X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar" by Aaron Allston, Wedge Antilles and his crew traveled to the backwater world of Adumar, which had its unique take on the refresher station.

Their guide had to give them a refresher refresher.

Answer: Flimsiplast

The Legends "Star Wars" material was largely produced in the 1990s and 2000s, and despite the intentions of its forward-looking authors, some cultural norms were hard to shake. And so "Star Wars" had still had paper, but it was called "flimsiplast", which was shortened to "flimsi". "Star Wars" was mostly digital, but some authors would forget or forego that standard and have their characters printing off reports to read, or using pens to leave notes for each other.

Answer: Holonet

Instead of 2D screens and cameras, everyone in "Star Wars" communicated using 3D holograms. This led to "Holo" becomming a common prefix in "Star Wars" (similar to "vibro"). Instead of watching movies, soap operas, or the news on their televisions, people watched "holovids", "holodramas", or the "holonews" on their "holoprojectors". All these media and messages were conveyed via the HoloNet, which was like the Internet, but like many things in "Star Wars", ignored relativity and the speed of light. Messages could be sent across the galaxy on the HoloNet the way we can send a message around the world.

Answer: Slicer

"Slicer" (along with its associated verb, "slicing") was one of the earliest fantastic names created for "Star Wars". In 1991's "Heir to the Empire" by Timothy Zahn, the smuggler Talon Karrde had a brilliant (if naive) slicer named Ghent on his team. The "Star Wars" Legends grew at the same time computers and the internet were becoming more mainstream, so slicers were a natural part of the universe.

Reading older "Star Wars" novels now, you can tell that the technology envisioned came from the imagination of someone in 1990s. For example, on Earth we are now used to encrypting storage devices and all communication, but that was not the standard when a lot of "Star Wars" novels were written, so listening in on communications or using manual encryption were common plot points.